Mortality is a Pain
by lipstickandgames
Summary: Frida, Nord Dragonborn and Serana find themselves in bad luck and at the mercy of a Snow Troll.


"SERANA!" Frida voice bellowed. She watched as the lumbering snow troll took her beloved companion by the waist and toss her into the rock side. There was a loud crack as Serana's body fell limp to the ground. Frida gritter her teeth and rose her Daedric great sword above her head. With the full force of her muscular body she drove the great sword down into the troll's back, cutting a thick gash into its hide. The troll reared back with a scream. Blood poured from the wound when Frida pulled out her weapon. The troll twisted and swung its tree trunk arm at her. Frida stumbled back narrowly avoiding the impact. She bared her heel in the ground to regain balance. The troll turned to face her, snarling and drooling with rage. It was at that time Frida could see out of the corner of her eye, Serana pulling herself away from the troll.

Frida felt her rage boil. She took her next swing at the trolls feet. Her weapon found perch on the side of the trolls leg. At the same time the troll pulled back and slammed his hand into her. The hand hit the metal armor with a clank but had enough force to push Frida a bit off balance. Again she had to dig in her heals to stay upright. The world darkened around Frida as the troll reared up and let out a roar. Frida couldn't help but grin.

"You call that a roar," she yelled, "I'll show you a roar."

Frida took a deep breath, the air filling her lungs, and as her lungs reach capacity yelled, "Yul Toor Shul"

She could feel the warmth rise from the pit of her stomach, up to her chest and out her mouth. A stream of fire rushed forth engulfing the troll. The troll panicked; wildly trying to put out the flames. The panic caused the troll to loose its footing, falling back into the frozen ground. Frida grinned over the troll and took this moment as her chance. She pulled her blade high and slammed down slicing into the trolls neck. There was a audible crunch and soon blood bubbled up around her blade. She pulled back and slammed it down a second time, insuring the troll would bleed out. The troll screeched in pain and grasped at the sword but to no avail, it was well embedded.

Frida left the troll to die on the ground, great sword still in its necks keeping the beast down. She rushed over the Serana, who during the battle was able to pull herself to safety and cover. Frida felt panic rise when she saw her love. Serana, grasped at her side, bruising already present on her face and a small pool of blood was collection under her.

"Serana, let me see." Frida pulled back Serana's hand to expose a nasty, deep, gash. Small bits of dirt, snow and stones were ground into purple flesh. Frida new it needed to be cleaned and bandaged immediately or else a massive infection would set in. However, before she got to bandaging she needed to know if anything else was severely wounded.

"Is anything else hurting?" Frida's eyes frantically scanned around Serana's body, looking for signs of bone, bruising and blood.

"To be quite honest, everything hurts." Serana tried to keep her cool sarcastic demeanor, but is was lost. Her voice wavered with pain and her hand shook as she brought it back to her wound.

Frida huffed in frustration, "that's not what I meant."

"Sorry," Serana winced and sighed, "there might be a few broken bones. It's hard to tell."

Frida saw how Serana tried to hide her pain. She knew mortality was new to Serana. "Alright," Frida said gently placing her hand on Serana's knee, "wait here. I will get a camp going so I can take care of that wound."

Frida pulled thick furred roll from the pack she dropped when they first encountered the snow troll. She did her best to carefully move Serana on the roll. Serana gasped from being moved. Frida covered Serana with a thick blanket to keep her warm while she was preparing the fire. Frida had a few logs on her and was lucky to find a few small fir trees nearby. The tree wood, along with some of the trolls fat as accelerant, brought a good roaring fire. Her next step was to boil some of the water from her water bladder and prepared bandages and tools to clean the wound.

"I am sorry, my love, this is going to hurt." Frida pulled back the blanket to expose the wound. Her rough hands, now free of her gauntlets, moved carefully as she began to wash the area. Serana winced and gasped as the warm water and rag touched her wound. The pain became more and more unbearable as Frida dug deeper into the wound.

"Argh!" Serana yelled, tears swelling in her eye, "what are you doing?"

"I have to get the debris out of your wound," it was miserable, Frida new all to well, but necessary.

"Graa!" Serana groaned, "if I was still a vampire this would have already healed!"

"If you were still a vampire, you would still be a minion of Molag Bal." Frida rinsed the rag and applied a thick balm over the area.

The balm was soothing, almost numbing. Serana found the pain lesson, "true," she said with a relaxing breath.

"And you would still be complaining about the sun." Frida lifted Serana to wrap the bandages, trying to hid a sly smile.

"True, again," Serana grunted.

"Oh and still under your father's clawed thumb." Frida said now obviously smiling.

"Okay! I get it." Serana, narrowed her eyes at her lover.

"AND, you wouldn't get to eat my amazing cooking!"

"You have made your point, dear!" Serana gave Frida a dirty look.

Frida leaned over Serana and kissed her forehead. "I love you. Your wound is cleaned. Take this time to get some rest."

Serana sighed into the kiss, "I will. This mortality thing, it has its down sides."

Frida chucked, "can't argue with that."

Frida pulled her bag to where she knelt over Serana. She shuffled through her bag and pulled out a small red vile that contained a small draft of health potion. While it would not cure the wound right away, it would help with the pain, and speed up the healing time. She handed it to Serana, who drank it slowly.

It did not take long for Serana to fall asleep. Frida put up a barrier around Serana to protect her from the elements, then laid beside her, taking care not to touch her and cause her any pain. Frida gently pulled her fingers Serana's hair while she slept. Tomorrow they would start there journey back home. There Serana could really get some rest.


End file.
